…Says coalition requires accurate political calculation
By Daniel Kanu
Political activist and former vice presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the 2019 election, Umma Ghetso, in this encounter with Sunday Sun, speaks on the hardship in the country, the coalition politics ahead of 2027 aimed at unseating President Tinubu and the Senators Natasha/Akpabio sexual harassment allegation, among other contending issues. Excerpt:
In the recent interview you granted, you came hard on Senator Natasha over her sex harassment allegation against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. Why? Given the fact that you are a woman, expected to be on the side of your fellow woman seeking for help and justice?
At my level, I should not be emotional over critical issues or biased because of gender. One needs to see beyond and above the ordinary eye when it comes to certain serious issues. She (Natasha) has done it to a lot of men in all this her cheap frame up. She did it to Reno Omokri, including even her present husband. What exactly is her mission? I think she is targeting something which may get clearer to the people with time. This kind of woman is not the type to be representing us, the women folk. It’s just because of the hate that Nigerians have for Akpabio, by extension the National Assembly, which is why it appears Natasha is winning. We should not devalue our value because we do not like Senator Akpabio . I was concerned and that was why I couldn’t have patience and I had to speak out. I expressed my view and I saw some responses that were full of insults , perhaps from ignorant ones, but that doesn’t bother me. As a politician you must at anytime take a position on an issue depending on your conviction and facts available to you. I am a politician and one must expect that some will disagree with your position and even rain abuses on you. It’s funny and laughable for a person in the class of Natasha, a Senator of the Federal Republic to say she is sexually harassed. Has she not been following the Senate President on trips outside the country on foreign trips? And it will be when she is in Akpabio’s house and with her husband coming behind that the man will now be sexually harassing her? Haba, such does not jell. I am a female politician and we have an image to protect, we are mothers, and wives. I don’t like the way Natasha is representing us, she is not representing our image well. If Natasha, that is a multi-billionaire, an elected Senator in Nigeria’s Senate is saying that a man, your fellow colleague in the house is harassing her…she is up to something, perhaps, to weep up emotion or sentiment for a game plan. A media man asked me if I have been politically harassed in my political journey and I said never, it has never happened because the way you present yourself is how people will address you. You won’t even give a man the opportunity to harass you. If you present yourself as a wife, as a mother…who will harass you? Even men that harass women look before they leap. They look at your conduct, behaviour and other considerations before they make their demand.
But you know that there are some men, crazy ones that can chase a woman, a married one for that matter, even when the woman is pregnant…?
(Cuts in) Yes, but not a powerful woman of Natasha standard? Not a woman like myself being sexually harassed. We will be killing the zeal of men that will want to allow their woman, their wife to come to leadership position. But if I am in a position of Natasha and Akpabio harass me, I will address him immediately; you address him immediately, at that moment. Natasha is an elected, rightfully elected Senator representing her federal constituency like Akpabio, they have been travelling all over the world together, Akpabio did not choose those foreign trip opportunities to toast, until she came to his house, his family house, and her husband was walking behind them. All the oversight functions they went within and outside the country Akpabio did not sexually harass her; this story did not add up, but it’s a pity a lot of people are buying the Natasha narrative. We must protect the image of women that are in politics and in high places who are mothers, conducting themselves like real mothers and wives.
Looking at the political situation now, what is your take on political development so far?
I am really scared for Nigeria the way we are going. Nigerians threw all insults on President Jonathan and even the opposition, the present leadership in power called Jonathan clueless and visionless. What is happening now is frightening and even you that is asking me this question knows that there is hardship in the land, severe hardship.
What is your take on this issue of coalition to unseat the President Tinubu-led APC government at the centre?
As we speak now, the truth is that the North is very angry with the President Tinubu government. Before now a lot of Northerners, including myself believed that Tinubu was a person with a lot of capacity, that he will be a game changer. You saw how President Jonathan was treated and how this APC formed alliances and merger which resulted to the defeat of President Jonathan. The rest now is history. Buhari came and destroyed what he met on the ground, which Jonathan built. President Buhari ended up as the worst Nigerian president in the view of most Nigerians. The eight years of Buhari was a waste. We called Jonathan clueless, but Buhari was worse than clueless given where he met the economy standing and what he left behind. Security was terrible, and worse even in his own locality, in Katsina State, the level of insecurity was unbelievable. Banditry started during Buhari. We anticipated that Buhari is a man that lacked experience, at least democratic experience, and lacked exposure. And let me tell you in 2023, it was no longer about competence; rather we were trying to run away from seeing Nigeria splitting. The way the country was going, we were drifting to a point of disintegration, which was part of the allegation against Peter Obi. We ran away from such divisive politics using religion and ethnic sentiment. We Northerners were fair and we know it was not our turn, we did not follow Atiku because Buhari used eight years. We know that zoning is one of the key factors keeping Nigeria going. The North felt that giving Tinubu opportunity to take charge as the president that he can restore hope. And with the belief that Tinubu built Lagos State and built a lot of people the expectation was that he can replicate what he did in Lagos at the national level. We expected him to do more, build more bridges of reconciliation, build a great economy, tackle insecurity, battle it to a halt, but what we have is a far cry from what was expected. Look, let me tell you, no matter how fancy, beautiful, a policy is or may sound, if it is not suitable for the common man, if it makes life harsh for the common man, its aim is defeated. We came out from the frying pan of Buhari and the common man is looking for an avenue to have a breathing space, and Tinubu had a slogan that inspired hope, but the policies we see are making the life of the common man hellish, very difficult to survive. There is nobody in Nigeria today that is not feeling the heat, even the multi-billionaires in our midst. The government is supposed to listen to the cries of the common man. No matter how you claim that the country is growing,if it is not reflecting on the life of the people positively, it makes no meaning, it makes no sense. Come to the North, thousands of businesses are dead, no electricity, no power to drive business. I am on Band A, paying so much but I will get light for only 4 hours in a day. We are all Nigerians, we are supposed to live based on what we earn, but now for business to survive in this country is something else. So, if coalition is going to happen, if it is a suitable coalition, why not? A coalition that will bring the North and the South together will be supported by Nigerians. We need a competent person, one that has followership. What is happening now is that the Nigerian masses have no trust again on anybody. It is that bad, because they have suffered disappointment from leadership failure. If the coalition gets their acts together they can produce candidates that will beat President Tinubu hands down.
When you talk about coalition, one of the challenges is that of selfish interest among the aspirants or you don’t think so?
That is why I am saying: if they get their acts together. There is a combination that they will field, they will unseat President Tinubu. Tinubu has lost the earlier impression people had about him, in terms of capacity to deliver. He has failed Nigerians in such regard. Can you see the level of insecurity in the land? Killings in Benue, killings in Plateau, in Zamfara, killings and kidnappings everywhere. The situation is worrisome.
Which combination is that which you think can defeat president Tinubu in 2027?I will tell you at the appropriate time. Let’s watch the way the coalition is going first. Let nobody tell you that Tinubu is not beatable. Let the coalition do their calculation well. I can tell you that the North is not happy with his government. Even his appointments are lopsided, in favour of a section, an ethnic group. Somebody said that the North has more in number in the appointments and I ask: if they have taken time to look at the weight of such appointments. Which portfolio is he giving to the North? The truth is that the spirit that the people put in to support President Tinubu when he contested in 2023 is no longer there. They have squandered the peoples’ goodwill. That spirit is dead because the masses are not getting the real change that has affected their life in quality and positively. They may be deceiving the president with propaganda, the reality is that Nigerians are facing hard times and they are not happy with the Tinubu-led government.